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Before Emilia Clarke was Daenerys Targaryen, there was Tamzin Merchant, Entertainment.com writes. 

According to the outlet, the then-21-year-old Merchant landed the female lead role in HBO's original ill-fated Game of Thrones pilot that was filmed in 2009. The pilot was famously scrapped and almost entirely reshot due to many issues, and several roles and crew members were replaced along the way. One of those changes: the actor who played the Mother of Dragons.

At the time, the British actress was coming off another hit costume drama, Showtime's The Tudors. She would later go on to join WGN's Salem, the CW's Supergirl, and Amazon's Carnival Row. Merchant is also about to launch her literary debut, the young adult fantasy novel The Hatmakers.

Merchant has never publicly discussed the Game of Thrones pilot in any detail—until now.

"Shooting that pilot was a really great lesson," Merchant said via Zoom from London. "It was an affirmation about listening to my instincts and following them, because I tried to back out of that situation and, during the contract process, I did back out. I was talked back into it by some persuasive people. Then I found myself naked and afraid in Morocco and riding a horse that was clearly much more excited to be there than I was."

Merchant is referring to Daenerys' wedding night in the pilot, which included nudity when the exiled Targaryen princess was claimed by her brutish horse lord husband, Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa). The Merchant version was filmed as more of a seduction than in the eventually aired pilot starring Clarke. One shot of the sex scene was interrupted by the horse having an erection (the pilot reshoot and horse anecdote were detailed in my Game of Thrones oral history, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon).

Continued Merchant: "It was a lesson that if my guts are telling me a story isn't something I'm excited to tell, then I shouldn't try to be excited just because other people are telling me that I should be excited," she continued. "I didn't have any training as an actor, I only have my instincts. And what excites me and what drives me is a compelling story and a compelling character. So for me, Game of Thrones was never that. I think it's a testament to Emilia Clarke for making that role iconic—she was obviously excited to tell that story, and she was epic and excellent. But for me, it wasn't in my heart to tell it."

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